It is known in the toilet tissue art to wind the toilet tissue into a coreless roll; that is, the convolutions of the toilet tissue are not wound about a core of paperboard or other material as is the more conventional practice.
It is well known to mount both coreless rolls of toilet tissue and the more conventional rolls of toilet tissue disposed about cores on spindles so that a consumer can rotate the roll to obtain a desired length of toilet tissue, said length being torn off along lines of perforation or, particularly in the case of rolls not having lines of perforation, severed or cut in some manner.
One of the problems encountered in such arrangements is free-wheeling of the coreless paper roll during unwinding thereof while on its associated spindle. In other words, the consumer dispenses the toilet tissue by pulling on the free end thereof. This results in rotation of the toilet tissue roll. Inertial forces tend to result in a continuation of such rotation even after the desired amount of tissue has been unwound from the roll. This results in considerable waste and also can cause contamination of the toilet tissue if the free end thereof is too long and contacts a surrounding surface such as a floor.
A number of brake devices have been devised for preventing free-wheeling or over-running of rolls of toilet paper and the like. However, such mechanisms are essentially designed for use with toilet tissue rolls having cores and are either inapplicable or inappropriate for use with coreless paper rolls. Additionally, many of the prior art devices are characterized by their relative complexity and consequent high expense.
The following United States patents disclose devices believed representative of the current state of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,221, issued Nov. 6, 1973, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 340,822, issued Nov. 2, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,822, issued Nov. 19, 1974, U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,379, issued Nov. 26, 1974, U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,434, issued Jul. 15, 1980, U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,163, issued Dec. 16, 1980, U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,656, issued May 17, 1983, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,407, issued Sep. 9, 1986.